September 13th, 2010 by DavidHarlow in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
Tags: General Medicine, Healthcare Competition, Healthcare reform, HHS, Hospital Referral Sources, Office of Inspector General, OIG, Pre-Authorizations, Referrals, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released an advisory opinion at the end of last month okaying a hospital’s proposal to provide insurance pre-authorization services free of charge to patients and physicians. This is an issue that has long vexed folks in the imaging world.
Clearly, this is a free service provided to referral sources (to the extent they are obligated by contract with third-party payors to obtain the pre-authorization before referring a patient for an MRI, for example), so why is the OIG okay with it? In their opinion, the OIG blesses the arrangement for four reasons. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog*
September 13th, 2010 by Davis Liu, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Opinion
Tags: Audi, Car Accident, Driver Safety, General Medicine, Motor Vehicle Accidents, Motor Vehicle Safety, New England Patriots, Physical Injury, Primary Care, Public Health, Tom Brady
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New England Patriots NFL quarterback Tom Brady was on his way to practice when he crashed into a minivan which allegedly ran a red light. His Audi S8 car T-boned the other vehicle a few blocks from his home. A relieved New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft noted after the accident:
“[Tom] arched and prepared himself and we’re just lucky with the glass and angles. We have a lot to be thankful for. It was really a miracle…We’re very, very lucky. Patriot Nation is lucky he had his seatbelt on.”
Was it simply luck or good car design and mechanical engineering? Crumple zones and the passenger cage of a car when built for maximum safety decrease injury. Yet, unfortunately, there is significant variability among safety in cars. Brady walked away from the accident for a variety of reasons.
As a future hall of fame quarterback, Brady has lightning fast reflexes when analyzing defensive blitzes and options when throwing the football. Quickly bracing himself for impact may have helped. Wearing a seatbelt definitely helped. What may have helped the most was the type of car he drove. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*
September 13th, 2010 by David Kroll, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Anticancer Effects, Big Pharma, Biguanides, Cancer Prevention, Diabetes Drug, Dr. David Kroll, Drug Companies, Guanidine, Herbal Medicine, Metformin, Natural Medicines, Natural Product Extracts, Natural Remedies, Oncology, Pharmaceutical Industry, Pharmacology, SBM, Science Based Medicine, Traditional Folk Medicines
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I’m only a monthly contributor here, but between being a Science Based Medicine (SBM) reader and having my own blogs, I often grow weary of the blind criticism that researchers and drug companies couldn’t care less about traditional folk medicines as drug products. My laboratory spends every single day working on natural product extracts in the search for compounds that may have selective effectiveness against cancer. So this is a bit of a sore spot for me.
Two [recent] papers from Cancer Prevention Research on the potential anticancer effects of a diabetes drug (see Nathan Seppa’s story here) remind me to tell the story of a Middle Ages European herbal medicine used to treat polyuria that gave rise to one of the most widely prescribed drugs in the world, metformin (Glucophage in the U.S.). Metformin, known chemically as a biguanide, dimethylguanide to be precise, traces its roots to the plant Galega officinalis. Known as goat’s rue, French lilac, or professor weed, this plant was shown to be a rich source of guanidine and a less toxic compound later called galegin or galegine (isoamyline guanidine). Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
September 13th, 2010 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, Medblogger Shout Outs, News, Opinion
Tags: Healthcare Blogging, Healthcare Social Media, Medblogging, Medical Blogging, Medicine and Social Media, Michael Arrington, Social Health Media, Social Health Memes, Social Health Psychomanipulation, Social Media Behavior, Techcrunch
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Last week Michael Arrington wrote an important piece in Techcrunch, “Blogging and Mass Psychomanipulation.” It details how as bloggers we play to our readers for positive regard. We give ‘em red meat.
I think there’s social health psychomanipulation. Many of us indulge the obvious social health memes. We universally bash pharma, blindly buoy the empowered, and champion just about anything at the intersection of digitally democracy and health care. Too many want to be accepted, retweeted, and linked by an evolving hierarchy of power brokers looking to advance one self-imposed new standard.
And every now and again I fall into the trap and offer bread and circus.
If you’re preoccupied with traffic metrics and the blind need to belong, go ahead and jump on the bandwagon. Push those big red “easy” buttons of social health. Contribute to the echo chamber. Then read Michael Arrington’s piece and look in the mirror. Who (or what) are you really trying to advance?
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
September 12th, 2010 by GarySchwitzer in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Breast Cancer Prevention, Breast Cancer Research, Breast Cancer Screening, Diagnostic Radiology, Family Medicine, Gary Schwitzer, General Medicine, Gynecology, HealthNewsReview.org, Internal Medicine, Interventional Radiologist, Mammograms, Mammography Wars, New England Journal of Medicine, Oncology, Preventive Health, Preventive Screening, Primary Care, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, Women's Health
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This is a thoughtful “sounding board” piece in the New England Journal of Medicine this week: Lessons from the Mammography Wars.
It is so important to keep this discussion alive. The miscommunication that took place last November of what the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force tried to convey, and the complicity of some news organizations in adding to that confusion, provide lessons from which we simply must learn to do better.
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
